Justin Lin has stepped away from one hugely successful franchise based at Universal Pictures and stepped right back into another one. The Fast & Furious mastermind has signed on to direct the fifth movie in the Bourne franchise, which now stars Jeremy Renner as similarly super-powered spy Aaron Cross. Despite persistent rumors that Matt Damon might return to play Jason Bourne, the franchise seems committed to carrying on with Aaron Cross for now.
According to Deadline, the studio is eyeing a 2015 release date, which would put the next Bourne adventure in the middle of what's already a crazy crowded year for sequels. The Bourne Legacy, which was the first Bourne film not to star Damon, made a respectable $276 million worldwide when it opened in August last summer, but the addition of Lin might have Universal hoping for another Fast Five-style franchise revival. Lin's first Fast & Furious film was the modest hit The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, but the franchise really took off with Fast Five in 2011, which made an enormous $626 million worldwide and earned the best reviews of the series. It got even better with Lin's final Fast film, May's Fast & Furious 6, which thus far has made $788 million worldwide. This all from a series that was once considered the dumber competition for Gone in 60 Seconds and is built around unremarkable stars Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. If Lin has a magic lantern in his office somewhere, nobody would be surprised.
I've been skeptical about the future of Bourne movies without Damon or director Paul Greengrass, who himself sent things into overdrive when he took over The Bourne Supremacysatisfyingly cinematic universes we currently have (yes, that's right Marvel, I said it). If he can convince Matt Damon to swing by for a cameo like Vin Diesel's at the end of Tokyo Drift, Aaron Cross might prove he's worth our time after all.
